Descent
With zombies closing in, you've got to get away. But what's the safest route? Cast * Nadia Al Hanaki * Veronica McShell * Sam Yao Plot Good Landing Veronica lowers you and Nadia down to the zombie infested Comansys building, as you all debate whether this is a good idea or not. Here Comes The Real Data You and Nadia break into the building and cover yourself with Veronica’s spray. You have twenty minutes to explore the building and gather information. Turn On The Alarm Nadia finds some interesting information; a name (Laetitia Greenwald) and someone’s diary. Sam suggests you sound an alarm as a zom distraction. Get Out Of There As you approach the alarm, Nadia reads out portions of the diary remotely as she attempts to retrieve any info she can from the Comansys computers. Those Zombies... You return to Nadia - she hasn’t finished getting all the files, but Sam demands you leave now, before the pheromone spray wears off. The Right Choice Sam invites Veronica back to Abel, but she decides to stay behind and continue her experiments. Nadia drops her bombshell; she’s staying with Veronica. Time To Run Veronica and Nadia launch you in the hang glider. Sam suspects that this is a terrible idea, but you float towards the break in the trees. The glider takes some damage as it flies through the forest branches and you plummet to the ground. Luckily you land safely beyond the zombies. They’re coming for you, though. Time to run. Veronica douses you in her zombie pheromone mixture and hands you a vial of a second mixture. One that will make zombies smell human. As you climb down the tree Sam suggests you test it out, so you do so. It works! The zombies turn on each other. A perfect distraction for you to run through the throng. Veronica and Nadia explain the plan. They will launch molotov cocktails at the zombie horde to thin their numbers while they run through the gap. Sam directs you around the firestorm and you make it through the throng. Run Home You’ve escaped the zombies, now you just have to run home. Sam tells you that you’ve done amazing work and that you’re becoming a bit of a legend around Abel. So much so, that he doesn’t want to lose you. Amelia has sent a bike to pick you up. It will arrive in three hours. In the meantime, you can go ahead and run off into the sunset. Transcript SAM YAO: More zombies are arriving every few minutes. They’re coming in from miles around. VERONICA MCSHELL: That’s why we have to do this now. Before long, there’ll be too many for you to hope to get away. buckle clinks NADIA AL HANAKI: Can’t say I’m pleased that Five and I are walking into a building that is quite literally full of zoms. I mean, we had a look in there. There are zoms on top of zoms, zoms mushed up against other zoms. Some zoms are standing inside other zoms! Like, right inside their hollowed-out, twitching rib cages. SAM YAO: Yeah, it’s not the safest. If we had another option… buckle clinks VERONICA MCSHELL: But you understand it’s important? NADIA AL HANAKI: Well, yeah. This is what we came for. Comansys have taken our people. If we’re going to get them back, we have to find out where Comansys have gone. And they’ve cleaned out every other one of their known locations. This is the only one they couldn’t get into to clean up. If the intel about where they’ve taken our people is anywhere, it’s in there. VERONICA MCSHELL: So why are you complaining? NADIA AL HANAKI: I like complaining. It’s part of who I am. Is that thing secure? VERONICA MCSHELL: Vince and I used it all the time. I can lower you down here while the zoms are distracted by that bucket of blood on the other side of the building. Should give you time to get over to the entrance. Once you’re in, pour this vial over you. The formula’s very volatile, and your body heat will burn it off quickly, but it should give you twenty zom-free minutes. Don’t waste them. NADIA AL HANAKI: That stuff absolutely stinks. SAM YAO: When I was at school, one of my mates gave me some pheremone spray that was supposed to attract women. NADIA AL HANAKI: Did it work? SAM YAO: No. NADIA AL HANAKI: Reassuring. SAM YAO: A dog did come up and hump my leg, but then, that sometimes happened whether I had the spray on or not. NADIA AL HANAKI: You don’t fancy coming along with us, Veronica? VERONICA MCSHELL: If the formula fails, I’ll need to be able to refine it, which I can’t do it I’m dead. NADIA AL HANAKI: But it’s not going to fail, is it? VERONICA MCSHELL: Statistically, it’s quite unlikely. The compound’s volatile, but the test we just performed was quite promising. Of course, ideally I’d like to rerun it another eight to ten times. NADIA AL HANAKI: Right. Well. Come on, Five. Last one in gets to smell like a rotten egg. zip down rope and land SAM YAO: Good landing. The zoms massing outside haven’t spotted you yet. Run! jingle, glass shatters NADIA AL HANAKI: I would have preferred the door, but this place is locked up tight with those security shutters. SAM YAO: Uh, can you give me some light? I have camera feeds into the building, but everything is very dark. NADIA AL HANAKI: Five has a small torch. SAM YAO: Okay, okay. I see you. It’s a really bad picture, though. Like those bits with thermal cameras in the ghost hunting programs. NADIA AL HANAKI: This whole experience has been a lesson for me on how to encourage runners in the field. Okay, Five. Time to give ourselves the world’s worst B.O. unscrews, liquid pours Ugh, that is rank! I’m going to say “Zombie by Veronica” is not going to be a massive hit. SAM YAO: Yeah, still. Better stinky than dead! That should be a saying. I still can’t see much, guys. Perhaps you could just describe your surroundings? NADIA AL HANAKI: We’ve come in through a toilet block. Entering the corridor. footsteps Nothing here. SAM YAO: Hard to know, but if the layout of this building is anything like the other Comansys buildings the Ministry knows about, you follow the corridor around to the right, and the file room should be the second door on the left. NADIA AL HANAKI: Moving now. Stop! I see somebody at the corner, not looking at us. It’s a shambler. Runner Five is approaching it. SAM YAO: Take it slow… NADIA AL HANAKI: No reaction. It’s just continuing to press its head into the corner. You were right. This smell works. SAM YAO: Stay alert. Get on the next walkway as quickly as you can – that’s clear. And then there’s more in the – looks like hydroponics labs ahead. You’ll have to run through them. Remember, you’ve only got another eighteen minutes and fifty seconds of those pheremones working. NADIA AL HANAKI: How many zoms are we going through? SAM YAO: A rough count? Um, forty-seven. NADIA AL HANAKI: Well, Veronica. Here comes the real data. Let’s get moving. Eighteen minutes to go. NADIA AL HANAKI: Wow, okay! That was a rush, running through that lab full of zoms. They didn’t even respond, but I keep feeling like they’re just about to. SAM YAO: Yeah, well, they still might. You need to work fast. Found the files? NADIA AL HANAKI: We’re in the right place, at least. beeps SAM YAO: You’ve got just under fifteen minutes left. Can you find what you need? NADIA AL HANAKI: We’ve got some paper files. “Emergency evacuation for senior personnel.” Just glanced through it. I don’t think it’s complete. One page just says, “You’ll all have been briefed on the importance of Laetitia Greenwald.” They’ve italicized her name. Obviously someone really important. SAM YAO: Hmm, doesn’t ring any bells. NADIA AL HANAKI: Maybe somebody at the Ministry will know. Some stuff about the plants – Veronica will like that. Says it has “adverse reaction in humans.” Great. We find that out, and now we’ve drenched ourselves in it. It’s also “seriously contra-indicated with regenerative therapies.” Okay, I’m going to get as much of this stuff as I can. They worked on a central file store system here. Wouldn’t help us to take laptops, as they’ve got nothing on them. I’m pulling as much as I can off the mainframe. It’s going to take a bit of time. beeps SAM YAO: Um, guys? NADIA AL HANAKI: Look, someone’s left their diary lying on one of the work benches. That’s weird - it’s not for work appointments, it’s personal. What happened to closing it with a heart-shaped lock and hiding it in your knicker drawer so Mum and Dad wouldn’t find it. SAM YAO: Guys! You know how you smashed a few test tubes and stuff when you were running through that lab? NADIA AL HANAKI: Five just caught the edge of that trolley dodging around the corner. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. SAM YAO: Yeah, I think it’s had some kind of weird effect, though. God knows what they were experimenting with in that lab, or how it’s fermented since then. The zoms are – well, they’re going sort of crazy. Loud and angry. Bad news. NADIA AL HANAKI: They still can’t detect us. We’re wearing “Zombie by Veronica”, remember? SAM YAO: Yeah, I’m thinking ahead, here. Five, I need you to head out of that file room. Go back the way you came, then head towards the pool. There’s some kind of alarm there. I’m thinking - go there, turn on the alarm. It’ll distract the zoms away from where you are, and keep them off your route out, just in case. NADIA AL HANAKI: Yeah, good plan. You do that, Five, and I’ll get these files off, and then we’ll get out of here. footsteps SAM YAO: Okay, you’ve got eleven minutes and twenty seconds of effective action from the pheremones left. Plenty of time. Just keep heading in that direction. The alarm’s at the far end of the corridor. NADIA AL HANAKI: Meantime, listen to this. I flipped all the way through to the end, and you’ll never believe what’s in this diary. SAM YAO: You’ve got the files though, right? NADIA AL HANAKI: Yeah, yeah, they’re copying over. Nothing more I can do to help it along. But listen to this diary! “I always loved you. That’s what you have to understand. I know that you used to say I loved you too much. I don’t get that. How can you love someone too much? I just want it to be like it used to be.” laughs Are you getting crazy crazy vibes from this? SAM YAO: Yeah, pretty much, yeah. Yeah uh, just head down that hallway, Five. NADIA AL HANAKI: “You never told me why you left. You never explained it. You said all those stupid things about ‘needing space’ and 'needing time’, and then the next thing I heard, you were moving in with someone new. It hadn’t even been six months, not even six months, and I thought if I could bring you back, just get you to remember how good it was between us!” SAM YAO: Is this going to end with Crazy McCrazypants killing someone with a saw? NADIA AL HANAKI: Why a saw? SAM YAO: Oh, I don’t know, it just feels right. I’m getting “saw” vibe from Mister or Miss Crazy. Saw, or maybe hammer. NADIA AL HANAKI: Anyway, no. It gets a lot more interesting after that. SAM YAO: Oh, just a sec. Okay, Five, hit that alarm, and get ready to run. blares Okay, go! Wait, did that zom just turn to look at you? Yeah, get out of there. blares SAM YAO: Okay, it’s working. Zoms are heading towards the swimming pool, even the enraged ones. Should keep you safe for now. NADIA AL HANAKI: File are getting there. Just need about another ten minutes. SAM YAO: Well, you’ve got five minutes and twenty-eight seconds. Do what you can. NADIA AL HANAKI: Roger that. Listen to this, though. This diary goes mental. He or she goes on for ages about how “they love you, oh they want you, they just have to show what they mean by love, and then…” “I persuaded P to help me. Managed to get through the reluctance. Said it’d be a good test of what we’d always thought the drug could do when properly refined. Not crude control of the motor centers, but fine control of motivations. Control of the spirit.” SAM YAO: Oh man. Are you hearing the pitter patter of tiny mind-controlled feet, Nadia? NADIA AL HANAKI: Didn’t go well for them, though. Later, there’s a bit where it goes, “You’re not yourself anymore. You tell me you love me, yes. I see it in your eyes that you mean it. But do you mean to mean it? Do you want to mean it? I don’t know how long I can go on like this.” SAM YAO: My guess is they could go on like that until they had the bright idea of doing whatever it was that caused the zombie apocalypse. NADIA AL HANAKI: Yeah, maybe. opens and shuts SAM YAO: Okay, Five, Nadia – you’ve got files to carry, and less than five minutes now. Time to get out of there. NADIA AL HANAKI: Maybe we’ll be able to come back and get some more of this stuff. We haven’t even taken a tenth of what’s on the files. SAM YAO: Yeah, but move now. That stuff’s wearing off by the second. Right, head to the exit to your left, and keep moving down that corridor. NADIA AL HANAKI: Sam, those zombies - SAM YAO: You were supposed to have four more minutes! NADIA AL HANAKI: Doesn’t look like we do. Run! growl growl, glass shatters NADIA AL HANAKI: I am never leaving the comms room again! SAM YAO: The ladder’s at your nine o'clock, about twenty meters. More of them approaching from the fields. Get up into the trees. ladder creaks NADIA AL HANAKI: I am never leaving the comms room again! VERONICA MCSHELL: Take my hand. NADIA AL HANAKI: Thank you. Now, time to get out of here. SAM YAO: Agreed. Zoms are still closing in from all sides on your location. You’ve got what you came for. Time to head home. You, too, Veronica. There’ll always be a place at Abel for Chris McShell’s daughter. VERONICA MCSHELL: Yeah, no thanks. I’ve got three years’ worth of food up here, and the influx of zoms will give me an unrepeatable opportunity for study. But the two of you should go now. I’m a hundred percent sure our plan will work. Well, eighty-five percent. NADIA AL HANAKI: Yeah, and I’m not coming. SAM YAO: What? NADIA AL HANAKI: There’s so much more down there to learn, and you need help here, Veronica, with your experiments, don’t you? VERONICA MCSHELL: Yeah. And besides, it’ll take two of us to launch you, Five. SAM YAO: True. NADIA AL HANAKI: It’s been – it’s been really good working with you, Five. We’ll see each other again, I know we will. SAM YAO: Looks like it’s down to you, Runner Five. I hope you made the right choice. Now, if you’re going to make it in time, run. OPTION 1 - Go over the zombies VERONICA MCSHELL: I found the parts for this glider in Sally Flynn’s locker. I’ve made a couple of improvements on my own. I think you’ll be okay. There is a gap in the trees ahead. It might be the size of the glider. It might be too narrow. SAM YAO: This is a very bad idea. NADIA AL HANAKI: I agree. Now, we don’t have a proper harness. And maybe that’s for the best, because you don’t want the gray horde closing in while you’re strapped to a bent frame of metal. SAM YAO: Well, on the other hand, you don’t want to fall out of the sky and break both legs! VERONICA MCSHELL: Five, you control the glider by shifting your body weight. It’s all about balance. Small movements are best. If you do get clear of the forest, try and catch a thermal or get some lift from a hill. SAM YAO: How do you catch a thermal? VERONICA MCSHELL: Just go as far as you can before you land. SAM YAO: In the right direction, obviously. VERONICA MCSHELL: Good luck, Runner Five. NADIA AL HANAKI: See you soon, I hope. wind blowing SAM YAO: Whoa, you’re doing it! You are actually flying a hang glider through a forest, over a huge swarm of zombies. This is insane! NADIA AL HANAKI: Veer right! SAM YAO: That means you shift your weight left, right? Or is it right? Um, oh, I don’t mean to alarm you, but all that contact with the branches is really slowing the glider down. snap Oh, you’ve stalled! Don’t break your legs, don’t break your legs! rustles Uh, good landing. Uh, you’d better get out of there, though. Run! zombies growl OPTION 2 - Repel the zombies unscrews VERONICA MCSHELL: This second liquid is your secret weapon. The green one makes you smell like a zombie. My estimates have turned out to be inexact. It won’t last more than a few minutes. SAM YAO: Yeah, probably a few less than you think. VERONICA MCSHELL: But the red one makes a zombie smell human. NADIA AL HANAKI: I’ve been on dates where I could have used the red one. VERONICA MCSHELL: Try to get through just moving slowly, but if you get into trouble, throw the red liquid onto the nearest zombie. This is my only dose, and there’s only enough to treat one zombie, so use it carefully. The others will all turn on it. SAM YAO: And if they don’t? VERONICA MCSHELL: Then I got the quantities wrong. SAM YAO: You don’t have to do this, you know, Five. We might find a way for you to wait it out. NADIA AL HANAKI: That’s not really Runner Five’s style. Abel and New Canton need those files. VERONICA MCSHELL: Good luck. NADIA AL HANAKI: See you soon, I hope. ladder creaks SAM YAO: I don’t think they’re interested in you. Just hanging around the tree. But there’s no space for you to climb all the way down. Time to try the red liquid? At least if it doesn’t work, you’re still in the tree. growls It’s doing something… chomps another zombie Great! Looks like you’ve got a few drops left in there. Maybe try and hit another. splashes See that gap? Go, go, get out of there! OPTION 3 - Run through the zombies SAM YAO: So, you’re launching what looks like Molotov cocktails through a forest while sitting in a tree. This is literally the worst idea that anybody has had since the zombie outbreak. NADIA AL HANAKI: So, the idea is to punch a hole in the zom group that Five can run through. You’ve tested this, right, Veronica? VERONICA MCSHELL: Yes. We’ve had good results. SAM YAO: How good? VERONICA MCSHELL: Very good. SAM YAO: How good? VERONICA MCSHELL: We got close to the target zone on two out of three of our launch tests. SAM YAO: How close? VERONICA MCSHELL: Very close. NADIA AL HANAKI: Better get moving, Five. VERONICA MCSHELL: Good luck. NADIA AL HANAKI: See you soon, I hope! VERONICA MCSHELL: Ready, Runner Five? We’re launching in three, two, one! launches, flames crackle, zombies growl SAM YAO: Well, you can’t run through the middle of that, it’s an inferno! … You are running through the middle of that. Veer left, they thin out in that direction. And now right. Great! Uh, the good news is you’re clear of the burning zombies. The bad news is a second group has picked you up, and they all look pretty fresh. Run! SAM YAO: Give me a quick glance backwards, if you can. Yeah, you’ve outdistanced them. Well, you’re three days out from Abel. Want me to engage the offline operator? Thought not. You’ve done great work in the treetops, Runner Five. All that research seems to be coming together, right? Everything’s leading towards something that could keep the zombies away, and if we can do that, man – nah, I don’t want to jinx it. In all seriousness, we have to stop putting you into these situations. Life’s not safe anymore, we know that, but if you take too many chances, sooner or later, you’ll draw the ace of spades. I don’t know if you realize, but you’re uh, you’re kind of an inspiration around Abel, Runner Five. Sometimes I hear them talking about you. Some of the stuff you did with Sara before she died – Fox Hollow. How you brought down Van Ark! And going after those bloody kittens! Don’t think I didn’t hear about that, by the way, because I did. Anyway, my point is, you might be getting too valuable to lose. When a person becomes a legend, you have to take care not to lose them to the zombie horde. Ugh, I shouldn’t have said anything. I made it awkward, didn’t I? Look, forget it. Hey, listen, I’ve got some good news. When Amelia heard about your documents, she authorized some of our remaining fuel for a bike run. You’re getting picked up! I think it should be about three hours until it reaches you? Until then, head west. Nice, easy pace. You’ve done amazing work. I know we can find Comansys and our people. And even better, I think we’re going to find out how the apocalypse happened. Enjoy the sunset. You earned it. Codex Artefact Diary Page I love you. And I know you love me too. You want to love me. You want me to show you how much you can love me. I know it’s hard for you, all the things you’ve told me about your family. You find it hard to show love. Even to feel it. But I can help you. I can let you see what’s been inside you all this time. I know you want me to.\ Category:Mission Category:Season Three Category:Choice Mission